In-store courier shipping for gift boxes at Gangneung Sand Main Branch

When I travel I always like to bring back a local specialty or dessert snack from wherever I visit, and since it had been a while since my last trip to Gangneung, Gangwon Province, I wanted to grab whatever souvenir was hot right now.

Looking into it, it turned out a lot of people bring home Gangneung Sand as their travel gift. So I visited Gangneung Sand Main Branch and I'm here to give you my honest review of the Gangneung Sand I picked up as a souvenir~~

Location and parking at Gangneung Sand Main Branch

Gangneung Sand Main Branch is located near Ojukheon, and it turns out an entire building is dedicated to Gangneung Sand! For parking, there's an open lot right next to the store, so I parked there and visited without any rush.

Store atmosphere and popular items

Walking into the store, it seemed like the breakwater bread and Gangneung Sand were the best-selling items.

The interior was decorated nicely in a white-and-blue tone, with plenty of tables and chairs, so it seemed like a good spot to order Gangneung Sand and enjoy coffee or a drink while you're at it!

Not just Gangneung Sand — the 'To You' dried persimmon and breakwater bread are also desserts that won awards at Gangneung's tourism souvenir competition, and the pastry chef seemed like no ordinary talent haha.

Gifts can be sent by courier right from the store

If you're planning to give gifts to people around you, you don't have to buy them one by one and carry them around — you can arrange courier shipping right there in the store!! This service is also super convenient haha.

You can also order through the kiosk, and they're running a Naver receipt review event — write a review and you get a canned Americano, so make sure to join in 😊

Menu and Gangneung Sand's 6 flavors

There were various drink options, plus Gangneung breakwater bread, persimmon jam, and Gangneung Sand — Gangneung Sand comes in 6 flavors total, packed 10 pieces per box (no single-piece purchases, no mixed-flavor boxes)!

Gangneung Sand comes in strawberry, coffee, dried persimmon, black sesame, purple sweet potato, and Chodang corn — 6 flavors, and there were so many that appealed to me that choosing was genuinely agonizing hahaha. Since Gangneung is famous for coffee, I picked coffee first, then agonized between strawberry and Chodang corn before finally going with strawberry!!

The strawberry and coffee flavor packaging I ordered

Even the packaging was so pretty, decorated with cherry blossoms in pink, it made me happy just looking at it haha.

These are the strawberry and coffee flavors, and each sand is individually wrapped, so they seem great to carry around and eat one at a time!

The words "Gangneung Sand" are printed big right on the sand itself, so anyone could tell at a glance it's a sand you bought in Gangneung haha.

Flavors distinguished by the color of the packaging text

They all looked identical, so I thought if you mixed them up you'd never be able to tell the flavors apart — but then I noticed that on the side of the package, where it says "Gangneung Sand," the coffee flavor is printed in coffee-brown and the strawberry flavor in pink, so you can instantly tell them apart by color. I loved this little detail haha.

My hotel had a forest view, so I took a pretty shot with the forest view in the background too haha.

Tasting it in the car during the trip

We still had a few more days left on our trip, so every time we left the hotel I'd grab a few sands and we'd eat them in the car whenever our energy dipped — they're packed full of cream inside, and the sand itself has a rich buttery scent that goes really well with the cream, so they were genuinely delicious haha.

Each sand is pretty thick, so for kids it might be easier to split one in half — that would make it easier for them to eat haha.

Final thoughts

You'll probably understand why everyone buys Gangneung Sand as their Gangneung travel souvenir once you try it haha. I really agonized over the flavors and ended up choosing coffee and strawberry — the coffee flavor turned out to be more intensely coffee-flavored than I expected, and the buttery flavor of the sand blended with the rich coffee cream so well that it seemed perfect to pair with actual coffee. The strawberry had so much bright, tangy strawberry cream packed in that it seemed impossible to dislike — both my husband and I enjoyed it a lot.

It's also a flavor kids would enjoy, so if you have children, I'd recommend the strawberry flavor too haha. Gangneung Sand isn't only at the main branch — it's also sold at Jungang Market and various spots around Gangneung, so you can pick it up wherever is convenient!

If you're a fan of Gangneung dessert snacks and wondering what to bring home as a Gangneung travel gift, I highly recommend Gangneung Sand — it makes a great present too ❤️